Thursday 26 February 2015

If I Stay by Gayle Forman.


Sometimes you make choices in your life and sometimes choices make you.

Summary:
Life can change in an instant.

A cold February morning...
A snowy road...
And suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone.

Except one.

As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all.

One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking stories I've ever read.
From the very first page this book wrapped me into its world and wouldn't let me leave until it was over, despite the emotions, the pain, the tears. I read this book from beggining to end in what felt like mere seconds and yet I savoured every minute of it.
I connected with all of the characters from the first words they said and my lord, did it kill me. It's such a sad story, yet it's still beautiful and shows how you should never give up, that there's always going to be someone out there to help you, to care about you.
This is honestly one of the best books I've read in a long, long time and I can't believe it's taking me so long to read it. Since The Fault in our Stars I decided that I would begin to branch out and read genres that I usually wouldn't, and I've gone on to read historical fiction, romance, horror and, of course, have fallen in love with contemporary. 
Each tale is so realistic that it no longer feels like a story, it feels like it's real life, as if it's happening right in front of you and I feel that this book is a perfect representation of that.
I could write pages and pages about how good this book is, but all I really need to say is read it. You'll feel what I felt when I read this and you'll just know.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
5/5 stars

Evershade by Alexia Purdy.


Summary:
Ever Shade A dark twist on faeries. For Shade, a chance meeting with a powerful Teleen faery warrior who wields electrical currents and blue fires along his skin, has her joining him on a treacherous mission for the good Seelie Faerie Court across the land of Faerie. Magic and malice abound and nothing is what it really seems to be. The evil Unseelie Queen and her treacherous allies are around every corner as Shade makes her way across the breathtaking landscapes of the world of Faerie, which exists alongside the mundane human world. Shade discovers her own uncharted magic and meets some of the most powerful warriors in Faerie while battling evil dryads, conniving Teleen guards and challenges on her life with every step in a world where nothing can be taken for granted. 

I'm going to approach this particular review I'm going to use a bad news - good news structure because in my personal opinion, although it wasn't a train reck and I didn't absolutely hate it, I feel that this book still needs a lot of work.
Regarding the writing, it's got an alright style but it has no wow factor. It doesn't make me think 'this is a book to lose sleep over'. To me it feels a bit clumsy and wooden and, in a sense, inexperienced. I guess the best way to put it is that it feels like a first draft. Which, actually isn't a bad thing, because issues like this can be fixed with some editing and going back over the book to give it a little bit of TLC. Despite that it's a good first draft. Unfortunately there's a difference between a good draft and a good novel.
Also, the character development is seriously lacking throughout the book. I feel like the characters don't at all feel like real people. They seem a bit like bad actors performing a new TV series that they pull the plug on after one season. The reactions given by the characters also were unrealistic and as a reader I felt a bit confused as to where they are at. At the beggining of the novel Shade has no disbelief for the fact that a strange man who has broken into an abandoned warehouse was shooting lightning out of his fingers and a women just simply upped and flew away; she holds no fear, no shock and all that is well and good but then within a few pages we see her change from this nonchalant reaction to disbelieving that faeries exist and acting shocked at the revelation when she'd just seen, first hand, a man turn into lightning and wasn't even that bothered by it. 
These things I felt made it hard to read.
But, despite this, I feel that the premise has promise and that the plot isn't actually that bad. Although the book didn't inspire me, it was entertaining and I felt that if it was just tweeked slightly here and there and built upon the foundation that the author has already built, it has the potential to become a great novel and one that I could enjoy beggining to end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
3/5 stars.

Sunday 22 February 2015

Charming by Krystal Wade.


They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that's great . . . as long as you don't die. 

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Haley Tremaine had it all: top-notch school, fantastic family, and a bright future, but all of that changed when an accident tore her family apart. Now, an alcoholic father, a bitter younger sister, and a cold headstone bearing her mother’s name are all she has left.

Chris Charming has it all: a powerful CEO for a father, a prestigious school, and a fortune at his fingertips, but none of that matters when he lands a reputation as a troublemaker. Struggling to follow in his father’s footsteps, he reaches out to the one person he believes truly sees him, the one person he wants: Haley.

Little do they know someone's determined to bring the two together, even if it means murder.

So, as you've probably noticed from the lack of reviews lately, I've been in a slight reading slump. Which really, really sucked. It was really a result of lack of time due to college and the fact that I just couldn't get into the stories I read.
But Charming, well, Charming brought me out of that slump and now all I want to do is read and read and read until I can read no more.
This book is a really emotional book, from the very beggining it makes you feel. And cry...just a little...okay a lot. I could never imagine having to go through the things the main character, Haley, has to go through and it honestly pains me to see such a strong, kind girl who deserves the very best of life to have to suffer through things that no living thing on this earth should ever have to go through. It really does make you wonder about your own life and really made, me at least, thankful for the life I've been given. These are real problems that are out there and it really breaks my heart that this horror is actually someone's reality. And that's what makes you connect with the book on a personal level. It's all real, even though it's not. It feels real, the characters are perfectly constructed and deeply developed. What I guess I'm trying to say is that this books character development is a masterpiece.
I just cannot fault Charming. I was craving a horror and a horror I did get and I sped through this book until I reached the very end, which, I'd just like to add, was absolutely perfect. I fell in love with all the characters...well, except for a couple, but that's a given! Antagonists are just not made to be liked!
Overall I'd just like to say I absolutely loved this book, this masterpiece, this brilliant piece of writing. And can we have a moment to praise Chris freaking Charming. Yes please.

A definite five out of five stars.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Saturday 21 February 2015

Everneath by Brodi Ashton.


Ever yours.

Summary:
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

Wow.
I think I need a minute after this one...or a century...more like a century.
What a book!
This novel really gripped me from the first page, I really wanted...no, needed to understand what was going on. The structure of this novel truly was brilliant and made us as the reader have to anticipate, drawing from the tension of digression to always keep you on edge.
I loved every second of this book.
Over the past year I've been trying to branch out and try new and different genres of books that I honestly never thought I'd enjoy, and I have been loving it, but I didn't realise how much I missed a good dark romance. It's like this genre is my home. I love it.
I also loved the characters in this book and the way the author creates mixed feelings for each and every one. And the concept was absolutely fantastic; so well thought out and carefully pieced together like a puzzle.
And can I just say that I absolutely adore the cover! I'm a confessed cover buyer and this beauty is what drawed me in. It's absolutely gorgeous.
And I have to say I truly didn't expect that ending. Not at all.
Oh my, I need the next book.
Right now.
I need it.
I had no hesitation giving this book a big five stars. Five stars that it deserves.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️